Realistic Idealism

Is moral philosophy more foundational than social philosophy? Is the question of how to live more fundamental than the question of how to live in a community? Are we getting down to philosophical foundations when we set aside contingencies regarding the communities in which political animals live, and proceed as if we were pure rational wills? I see no reason to say yes to any of these questions. To recover a measure of relevance to questions that practitioners need to answer—questions about how to live as social beings—theorizing about how to live together might take its cue less from what we now call moral philosophy and more from what we once called political economy.